What is yoonla.com and will it help you build the ultimate digital lifestyle?

What is Yoonla.com

My Yoonla review

• Website: https://www.yoonla.com
• Legitimate: Yes, but sketchy (read on …..)
• Cost to join: $15 per month, plus $71 per year.
• Recommended: No

Before I continue, I want to make it abundantly clear that I do not receive any commissions from Yoonla.

I really wanted this product to be fantastic, because I feel like it’s about time I shared with you a fantastic program that will help you create the life you want. This program started with so much potential, and I was feeling very positive that I had something great to share with you.

By the end of my research into this product, unfortunately I’m left feeling perplexed by what I have found. I cannot bring myself to recommend this program. Please read on so that you can understand why I’ve formed this view.

Let me share with you what I have found, and why it is something that I would not feel right about recommending.

Let’s take a look at this program that promises to help you build your Ultimate Digital Lifestyle.

What is Yoonla about?

Yoonla was founded in 2016 by Reno van Boven, and the company is based in New Zealand.

To find out was it all about I created a Yoonla account and started exploring. It was really easy to set up, and the site itself is clean and well laid out. It doesn’t look gimmicky and I’m not seeing any immediate red flags. That said, it is hard to determine on face value exactly what it’s all about and ‘how’ you make money, other than it’s clear you do something online to make money.

It is also obvious that they want me to sign up for the ‘Yoonla Elite Free Upgrade and Priority Set Up’ free, but valued at $297. I have no idea what this is or why I would need it at this point, so I won’t bother with that right now. I need to understand what this is all about first.

 

So, I keep looking!

I start with the Yoonla Evolve 5 minute introductory video, presented by founder Reno. He is a likable enough fellow, and does explain clearly upfront that he will not be making outlandish or unrealistic claims about how much money you can make using Yoonla. He also points out that making money online takes time and dedication. This is refreshing to hear, and so far I’ve got the impression that this will be a BS free zone. So far so good.

I keep waiting for Reno to explain what the product is all about and how it works, but by the end of the video there has been no mention of what it’s all about. I’m really wanting to know by now. I return to my welcome email from Yoonla which sums up what I’m thinking quite nicely! It says:

“As a new member, we understand that everything may seem a little overwhelming and you may be thinking ‘’What did I sign up for, exactly?’'”

That’s right! What exactly have I signed up for? It’s still not in the slightest bit clear. The email goes on to say:

“Yoonla Evolve is the leading Digital Lifestyle Platform where you are able to run your own Digital Marketing Business whilst earning referral commissions for each person who creates their free Yoonla Starter membership account.

You build your own lead database within your GetResponse automation account, then when those leads go on to create their free Yoonla™ starter membership account you will earn a $4 commission for the referral.”

It is starting to sound like the whole business is a way to get others to sign up to Yoonla?? I hope not, but I guess I need to keep investigating. Surely a ‘leading digital lifestyle platform is more than that?

I am getting some more emails from Yoonla now, which is great because I want to know more about it, and how I go about starting.

It seems there are three main steps to the program (although there are some sub steps in between). Going back to the website I can see there are actually seven steps, and so I don’t confuse myself and miss any steps, I follow the steps on the website. These are the ones on the left of the menu.

Each of the steps look simple enough, and each step has an explanatory video.

Before I go through the steps, I will point out that there are some free training videos available for you:

The free Yoonla training videos

There is an ‘affiliate marketing 101’ section of the Yoonla site available that contains 10 short videos:

• Lesson 1: The Life of an Affiliate Marketer Length: 2.45 minutes
• Lesson 2: What Does Affiliate Marketing Involve? Length: 6.00 minutes
• Lesson 3: How to Approach Affiliate Marketing Length: 3.00 minutes
• Lesson 4: The Mechanics of Affiliate Marketing Length: 2.44 minutes
• Lesson 5: Types of Affiliate Programs and Choosing the Best Products Length: 10.44 minutes
• Lesson 6: Your Beginner Strategy – Don’t reinvent the wheel Length: 3.00 minutes
• Lesson 7: Making Things Sell Length: 16.44 minutes
• Lesson 8: Affiliate Marketing in Person Length: 4.09 minutes
• Lesson 9: Using Your Existing Routes to Market Length: 3.06 minutes
• Lesson 10: Marketing Your Blog, Mailing List & Squeeze Page Length: 6.17 minutes

Looking at the length of these videos, you aren’t getting a whole of information that is going to set you up in a successful online career.

I will go through each of the steps as outlined by Reno.

Step 1 – Evolve App and Commission Tracking

This step is a quick and easy one. There is a video that goes for about one and a half minutes, which instructs you to download a zip file. We are told that this ‘app’ is how we will receive affiliate commissions. In essence, this zip file will make up a squeeze page. However, at this point it isn’t made clear about exactly what the ‘app’ does and how it works, other than it will allow the affiliate commissions to occur.

Step 2 – Create Automation Account: Autoresponder

This step is all about getting an autoresponder. (Even though it’s still unclear about the actual process you need to take in order to make money). Yoonla say that the service “is required so that we can set up the integration of your Evolve App and Evolve website, adding subscribers into your digital funnel. When people sign up onto your Yoonla Evolve website, they can simply enter their email address into the webform and this will be linked to your GetResponse automation account so that you can build your lead database.”

Once people sign up, Yoonla say that they will be automatically redirected through your Yoonla Evolve affiliate link so that you will be paid up to $4 per lead referral and up to $75 when they lead upgrades to their Yoonla Evolve account.

It becomes apparent quite quickly that in order to do anything at all with Yoonla, you need to sign up for GetResponse. GetResponse has the following pricing structure:

 

Even if you already have an autoresponder that is not GetResponse, you will need to purchase GetResponse. Yoonla makes an affiliate commission for every sign up to GetResponse.

Reno recommends that you go for the $15 per month investment, which allows up to 1,000 contacts or leads.

Step 3 – Set up Automation Campaign

This step will ‘automate’ your digital lifestyle business. This step is explained in a 7 and a half minute video.

The video is very much taking you through the process steps to activate your GetResponse account. Reno again advises that you should choose the $15 account when you are starting out.

You are told exactly what to click on to create a list campaign. Although, there is no explanation about what a campaign is, or why we are doing it. We are told how to set up a subscription so that we can receive an email for every time someone signs up (what are they signing up to? – I’m still not sure).

Then we set up the autoresponder. This will be the email campaign that our sign ups will receive. They have made this step very simple. In the file download section of the site there is wording for the first email to send out. You don’t need to write this email yourself, it is written for you. You create a plain test email by copying and pasting the email from the downloads section. Then insert your name and the affiliate link (although you won’t have the affiliate link until the very final step, which is step 7).

Here is a snapshot of the email downloads section:

As you can see, the first email text is set up for you. Then next series of emails are only available when you get to step 7.

Step 4 – Business Hosting Account

Well it looks like I need to pay for more stuff at this step. I’m told I have to set up a Yahoo Small Business Hosting Account. According to Yoonla, “this is where we will provide you with a 2-minute tutorial where you can upload your Yoonla Evolve app to and where we will set up your special Yoonla Evolve digital funnel. After we have upgraded your membership, we will provide you with a link where you can easily make changes and edit your website/funnel at any time.”

This step allows us to make our own domain name URL squeeze page to go live.

Here are the pricing options for the Yahoo Small Business Hosting Account.

 

Reno says you cannot select the basic plan, it must be the advanced or the premier plan. In this step you are required to come up with our own dot.com domain name that reflects your ‘digital lifestyle business’.

If you’re still wondering what a digital lifestyle business even means, it’s becoming clearer with the complete and utter lack of explanation that you need to just go with it. Make it up! Stop wondering and go with the flow ….

Once again, Yoonla receive an affiliate commission from you when you set up a Yahoo Small Business Hosting Account.

Step 5 – Get Your Evolve App Online

In this step, you use your Yahoo Small Business Hosting Account to verify your new domain name, and upload your Evolve app and tracking link.

Step 6 – Customise Your Evolve Site

There are now two steps to go. In this step, you customise your squeeze page by doing some minor edits to the wording.

Step 7 – Activate Your Evolve Funnel

This step essentially is completing a form and involves you upgrading your membership to become an elite member.

You are promised a series of bonuses here, including access to further training, and access to an ‘elite’ Facebook group where they will be doing live training, which are all claimed to increase your earning potential.

 

That’s it. Is it apparent what you are selling yet?

You are selling what you just did, to others. You are selling Yoonla. Which is basically someone else’s autoresponder (GetResponse) and a Yahoo Small Business Account. Both of these things provide affiliate commissions to Reno.

And at the end of the 7 steps, you will have:

• a one-page website (known as a squeeze page) that has an autoresponder, allowing you to collect email addresses from your visitors. Your website will be exactly the same as the other 1.6 million who have joined Yoonla.
• A series of 15 standard emails that can be sent to the people who have provided their email address, to promote Yoonla

What are you paying?

• $15 per month for GetResponse (you cannot use a different autoresponder)
• $71 for one year’s worth of hosting via Yahoo (this is billed in one go). You cannot use your own hosting.

For many people, steps 1 to 6 will be confusing, and that is where the ‘upgrade’ comes in. You can choose not to do steps 1 to 6, and request that Yoonla do it all for you for the cost of $297.

The issues that I have with Yoonla

#1 Lack of clarity and transparency about what you’re going to be doing

In my view, there is a real lack of transparency about what the digital lifestyle business opportunity actually is. You’re expected to follow steps that have not been clearly explained at all. Never do they actually tell you that what you are selling is the exact process that you have just done – creating a squeeze page and sales funnel so that it can be repeated by other people that you recruit. For many people who don’t have experience with affiliate marketing, they may be oblivious that all they are doing is promoting third party products that provide commissions to Yoonla themselves, and then asking others to do the same.

#2 Hidden costs

It is unclear upfront that there are costs involved, and that those costs are for third party products that are ‘mandatory’ costs if you are to proceed.

#3 The ‘free’ upgrade trick

For anyone who has trouble setting up steps 1 to 6 (and there will be many who do have trouble – the instructional videos are only a few minutes long) – you have the ability to get your free upgrade done for you. Lucky you – there will only be a few spots available but I have no doubt that this is offered to everyone. I believe this step is made available just to ensure that you set up the affiliate links correctly so that Yoonla get their commission from you.

#4 The ethics of their ‘product’

Given everything I have said, I have to question whether what they are doing is morally OK. They are selling a ‘digital lifestyle business’ that is basically a replicated squeeze page that earns them commissions, and you are asking others to do exactly the same thing. I don’t know about you, but that makes me feel uneasy. They have no original product or service, they are just relying on GetResponder and Yahoo to make them money.

I believe they are being intentionally deceptive, and I think that passing it on to others to be deceptive in the pursuit of making money is unethical.

#5 The inherent contradiction

One of the things that originally impressed me with Yoonla was that Reno said there would never be outlandish claims about how much money you can make with Yoonla. Hold on a minute, what’s this:

 

I think I’ve had enough now.

My final verdict on Yoonla

I think you can absolutely make money with Yoonla. It follows the basic principles of affiliate marketing. Would I pay for this Yoonla set up and market it to other people? No way. I don’t think it’s right.

There are much better (and ethical) ways to make money online, that follow a much better business model than Yoonla.

 

There is a much better way to make money from home

Even though Yoonla was definitely not for me, and I’d never promote as a great way to make money online, affiliate marketing is an awesome way to make real money online. In my view, affiliate marketing is the best way to build a lucrative and consistent income from home.

My preferred platform, Wealthy Affiliate, has no barriers to getting started, and provides the tools and support to help you build a consistent revenue stream. I consider Wealthy Affiliate to provide the best affiliate marketing course available. There are no hidden costs, and you will see honesty and integrity from day 1.

 

If you have found any platforms that have helped you, please let me know what they are! I would love to review them and share the findings with everyone here.